<h2>TGM</h2>
<h2>THE GREEN MAN</h2>
YOU DECIDE
CD/4x12" LP
CORE 005
09/2001
ARTIST PAGE
The classicism of Drum & Bass. A pioneer has finished his long awaited solo album. Heiner Kruse - alias The Green Man alias TGM, well-known DJ, producer, remix specialist and owner of the label of Basswerk and Junglegrowers, presents his LP debut with Combination Records. Recently, TGM already left his marks contributing Philtry to the Traffic compilation. He also prepared for the LP adventure with his meanwhile almost famous vinyl maxis, adding to the modest maxi series of Combination Records the teaser 12" CORE 005.
TGM took his time with this album. You Decide is not just a collection of a few hit numbers, blown out of proportion with filling material. You Decide is - and this is no promotion garbage - You Decide is 14 Drum & Bass hit tracks, continuously breaking the boundaries of Drum & Bass. It is as rich as electronic dance music can get. No piece is like the other. It is futuristic cool, melancholic, complex, brutal and floating lightly. TGM continues where the Basswerk Sessions stopped three years ago. There are no boundaries in the jungle.
Like for example I GO, a track that enfolds like a flower. The flower already blooms for some time now on the plates of numerous DJs of the trade. The same goes for Illegal, maybe the biggest international Basswerk hit track. A pop hammer regular on the Drum & Bass dance floors.
Music is in the air. And the only thing a musician has to do, is to join the stream with his instruments. At the latest after the transition from Illegal to 51063, one feels like this with You Decide. And we are allowed to be witness. 51063 smoothly fits in with complex mouth beatbox beats, although it is the most electroid track on the album. We only use the words jazz and new because the programming smells like improvisation, not because the 1:1 copied fragments from the old days call for melancholic memories.The appearing and vanishing voices that TGM mixed into a few of the cross-overs on the cd-version convey physical presence. Scenes of airports, or the (de-) construction of Basswerk Sessions. People still present. The journey remains. The world according to Heiner kruse in beats and sounds.
Even if we dissect with a scalpel, TGMs music never appears constructed. Although everything seems at its proper place, thousands of layers of bass, surfaces, beats, percussion, big and small parts of melody keep it all on the move (f.e. Kavango). It is never rigid. TGM`s beats are never the same. Every track is an original, slowly developed during the extensive preparation of this album.
This is the analytic side to the music. Perfection in sound and arrangement are essential in Drum & Bass. This is nothing new. Certain skills are a preamble if you want to play premiere league. TGM can play even Championsleague Because the man brings more qualities. Due to his extensive experience as a DJ (since 1984, since 1994 as Junglegrowers, since 1997 as Basswerk-Sessions, always as a Duo with Cheetah) he knows what is done on the Drum & Bass dancefloor. Ruff rolls powerfully, rather melancholic Separation, Lost - his last co-operation with Klute - clinical, Tender Suicide brutal. But always made for the floor. His pieces are a distillation of the night. Blessed with the courage of a big gesture. Complete. Atmospheric. Playful. Beautiful. Funk. Wood. Always catching and without compromise within itself. With parts of deep bass, fast beats and sometimes even rave. Kabelwerk and Damn Wire are rave hymns that don`t set on competition (louder, faster, tougher) but use their own whistle with self confidence.
With Chicks (also feat. Klute) and the extended vocal rmx of Infinity, You Decide makes spring appear. The sun comes up, the party is over. An album like the night and the morning after. TGM does Drum & Bass and with this he makes most modern pop music. Then, he is also understood beyond the genre, using the Drum & Bass language universally and obliging, without doing without it`s roots and brutality. This is the classicism of Drum & Bass. A music that dedicates itself to the future, finally has arrived. Time has a break. A quick and loud break.
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